Cruising cheap

[southernmama]

Wondering everyones take on cruising on a tight budget. Had alot of things happen over the last couple months that required our extra cruise money. Please help me convince my husband that we can go on a tight budget and still have a good time.

[Froufie]

Absolutely can be done - maybe if you mention your ports those with experience can provide some 'cheaper' ideas for excursions....

 

As for onboard - you can certainly not 'buy' anything if you don't want to avoiding the costs for casino, gift shop, pics, etc....... Bring your own wine and soft drinks onboard and an insulated mug for coffee/lemonade/water etc.

[hockeyluver]

I can be done!! order a bottle from bon voyage and bring on your own pop/ mixers. There is no need for professional pictures, people walking by will gladly take your picture for you. Most ports you can walk around sight seeing or head to a free beach for a day. And really how many souvineers do you actually need??!!?? For me, my pictures are my souvineers. Now my downfall is the casino..... :D

[SandS204ever]

I love to plan our vacations as cheap as I can ... that away when the wife starts adding things on its still withen budget. Just book a 7 day Splendor with air from PDX for about $1,500. Granted thats inside cabin, but we priced out our dream vacation (close to $6,000) then started trimming it down till we had a great vacation for an amount I could stomach. Paid a little extra for a flight home during the day and not so late at night.

 

The wife leaves all the budgeting to me, and always complains before the vacation starts but during she never complains and when we get home and have some cash left then she thanks me. Great vacations can be done on a budget :D

 

Not sure how much that helps lol

[tasmith09]

Our first cruise we were on a pretty tight budget and still had an excellent time. I limited myself to only 1 drink a day, we didn't buy any pictures, and found cheap/free beaches to spend our port visits on. Basically, we kept our expenses to just that of the cruise itself and the travel expenses. Not too hard to do, and it saves a lot.

If you have to option to downgrade to an interior room that will help if you aren't in one already, but that won't work if you booked ES. Take any soft drinks you may want with you, instead of buying them on the ship, or stick to lemonade and ice tea. Prepare a strict budget and stick to it and you'll still have a great time!

[flounder315]

pre paying your tips will help. carry on the allowed perpson soda, water & wine. yes it can be done easy on a budget. having a good time on a cruise does not require spending money on board or in ports

[susie8862]

The only thing on our bill is cocktails. (which we choose to have) but not necessary.

 

1. Eat at all the free food venues

2. Don't buy pictures,,,take your own pics

3. Stay out of the casino

4. Don't waste $$ on souveniers

5. Lots of free beaches and itineraries

[maplevale]

We are going on our first cruise in October..... having done AI's for years it is scaring me how fast things add up! To try and curb costs here are our plans.

 

1)We booked an inside cabin (did upgrade to 'inside with window' to get some light but still under the price of an outside)

2) Pre-paid our tips (not sure if it saves $$ but at least it is paid already)

3) Pre-Cruise hotel we are booking through Priceline

4) We are taking our 2 bottles of wine on board

5) We are taking our 24 allowable non-alcoholic drinks on board

6) We are ordering 2 bottles from Bon Voyage (yes, more $$ then on shore, but less $$ then Bar prices)

7) Ports:

Key West - kayaking with outside company for the morning only, afternoon wandering around on our own

Ochos Rios - excursion through Carnival due to our short port day and uncertainty about Jamaica to us

Grand Caymen - taking the public bus ($3) to the beach (free) to spend the day enjoying the water!

8) Souvenirs - likely none (maybe a bottle of Rum!). We did Disney in the Spring with our 4 year old and she only came home with 3 items (ear hat, Minnie doll,Minnie light).... however I have over 1000 pictures of our incredibly enjoyable time!

9) I have read through some old 'Fun Times' I found online and found things I want to do that have a cost (Martini Tasting) and have that amount 'budgeted' in my mind.

10) Pick what is important to you... and put money towards those items. It makes the $$ spent more worthwhile to you.

 

 

I think the best thing I have learned from these board is that if you can book far enough ahead, prepay your cruise/airfare and then start buying your FunShip dollars and excursions. Then by the time you board you have pre-paid 90% of your trip. Didn't work for us this time (booked 40 days in advance) - but if we like cruising and choose to do it again I will aim to do that.

[lbow2006]

We've prepaid all of our expenses on our upcoming cruise and honestly aside from a few small souvenirs (on our honeymoon I bought too many souvenirs and they're still lingering in a drawer somewhere) we won't be spending much extra money. That's the part I'm most excited about now that everything else is paid for it'll be nice not to have to pull out our wallets all the time.

 

As others suggested bring the 12 20oz sodas per person and your 2 bottles of wine (If you want those items) so that you don't have to pay for these things on board.

 

Definitely take your own pictures, I have no intention of buying any of the ship's pics

 

There are so many things you can do in the ports for free and you really don't need an excursion to have fun. Especially if you love beaches or sight seeing. :)

 

I certainly think you can still have a wonderful vacation without breaking the bank. Good luck to you!

[lbow2006]

I think the best thing I have learned from these board is that if you can book far enough ahead, prepay your cruise/airfare and then start buying your FunShip dollars and excursions. Then by the time you board you have pre-paid 90% of your trip.

 

I agree with this for sure!

[hockeyluver]

Also I wanted to do a b2b so instead of booking a balcony, our usual, I booked us in a 4J on the lido. Now we can do 9 days instead of a 7 day. Therefor i can do a b2b and check it off my bucket list :D We also pre pay our gratuities and buy drink coupons.

[Lovefuninthesun]

Wondering everyones take on cruising on a tight budget. Had alot of things happen over the last couple months that required our extra cruise money. Please help me convince my husband that we can go on a tight budget and still have a good time.

 

We always cruise on a very tight budget, and we always have a TERRIFIC time!:)

- We are perfectly happy in our interior cabin.

- We prepay gratuities.

- We do inexpensive excursions (<$50PP), and then only if we have never been there before. If it is a return trip, we just do our own thing with walking, taxis, buses

- No formal pictures

- No specialty dining or

- We carry on wine as allowed. We do have a few cocktails/other glasses wine, but we add a little to the account upfront to cover

Seriously -- I have never, once felt deprived -- rather we have enjoyed every minute!

[mephistoles]

Definitely can be done. On our recent Liberty cruise (other than the $241.50 in gratuities (for DH, DS & myself), we probably spent less than $100. We didn't do any excursions however we did do a van tour ($10/pp) in Puerto Rico and spent $8/pp (round trip) to get to the main shopping district in St. Thomas. We did buy souvenirs but mostly key chains & those 3 for $10 t-shirts. We didn't buy any soft drinks or any alcoholic beverages on board. Now, I'm going to be honest and say that I did donate maybe about $50 (but not from our "travel" fund) and to the CCL casino fund.

My mom spent even less than that. Other than her gratuities, she spent maybe $50 and that included souvenirs AND her donation to the CCL casino fund.

[joeyancho]

It can easily be done. Once went on a 10 day cruise and aside from the tips and 2 bottles of booze I bought as gifts, our funpass bill was $17.00. I booked all excursions online with private vendors or negotiated a cheapie tour at the dock. We do not drink booze or gamble. We boarded with 2 twelve packs of soda.

[SadieN]

In port stay away from most tourist restaurants and eat at a place where the locals eat. Even cheaper is to go back to the ship for lunch.

 

Research beaches, self-guided walking tours etc. Many local museums are inexpensive (fee or donation) and are usually air conditioned.

 

Get on your roll call. Sometimes people are planning trips and need a few more.

[jonathansburden]

It can be done! Our very first cruise I had a medical emergency a few days before we left. We didn't have medical insurence, so all of our money went to doctors and we almost had to cancel the trip. In the end we borrowed a wheelchair & left for the airport with $100 to last us the week. We spent $87 onboard the ship (tips were prepaid) and to date it was out best trip. It's totally possible to have a great trip on a budget!

[southernmama]

We will be going to key West Grand Cayman and ocho rios on the Freedom October 28

Absolutely can be done - maybe if you mention your ports those with experience can provide some 'cheaper' ideas for excursions....

 

As for onboard - you can certainly not 'buy' anything if you don't want to avoiding the costs for casino, gift shop, pics, etc....... Bring your own wine and soft drinks onboard and an insulated mug for coffee/lemonade/water etc.

[JTfromGA]

As others said, it isn't hard to NOT spend extra money. We have been on several where the only thing on our Sail and Sign card was tips (we didn't prepay). In addition to what others have said:

*Don't go to the specialty restaurant or coffee shop.

*If you must gamble, use cash and stop if and when you lose it. I allot myself a small amount each day to spend (and yes I usually lose it) but I have fun with the slots.

*Enjoy all the free stuff the ship has to offer... tea time, games, champagne at the art auction (look, don't buy), karaoke, shows, contests, serenity deck, gym, lots of food and 24hr ice cream!

Just writing about it has gotten me excited, I can hardly wait til December!!! :)

[richstowe]

A)Drive (don't fly. Perhaps leave from New Orleans)

B)Timing, timing,timing (huge difference based on cruising dates)

C)Be flexible (with cruise line, ports, cabin type etc)

 

Sorry if you are unable to take advantage of these tips. Many people can't.

We have taken 2 post New Years cruises. Extra low prices. We also took on our own soda and wine.

Our TA has paid for all our gratuities on each cruise.

[paper1122]

We will be going to key West Grand Cayman and ocho rios on the Freedom October 28

 

Key West there is plenty to do just by walking around, no tours needed.

 

Grand Cayman take the local bus to seven mile beach or go snorkeling off the rocks at Eden Rock (the real one). Both will ensure a fabulous and cheap day.

 

Ocho Rios if you are planning on going away from the port take a ship excursion.

 

Otherwise, if you limit your alcohol and casino spending you can go very cheaply.

 

On my upcoming 4-nighter I bet we'll spend less than $200 outside of the cruise cost.

[rferr]

You can have a great time. My last sign and sail bill for three people for a week was 450 bucks and that included tips and that was splurging for us. Usually the bill is just tips.

 

Do your own tours. Take public transport at stops. We take public buses or safari buses.

 

Take your own food for lunch. (People will tell you not to do it I know. We always take baggies with us and pack our own lunches. Done it for twenty years nothing bad ever happened)

 

If you want a few drinks, drink them in port and smuggle on booze.

 

Don't buy anything on the ship.

[jetteh22]

As everybody else has said, it's totally doable. I haven't seen anybody else say it but I think the hardest part is convincing somebody who doesn't think so that it is. A -LOT- of people believe you HAVE to have money in order to enjoy yourself (I even feel like that sometimes).

 

For my partner and I, the most we spend money on are souvenirs (not for us but for other people), drinking (I only have one or two drinks a day and he is the same unless his brother is around and then it's shot after shot after shot, ughh) and the casino.

 

We're not really going with a budget for our next cruise in December (I say no budget but there is a budget, we just don't really spend all that much anyways) but our cruise for next year is going to be budgeted big time because we also want to take a week trip to NYC since he's never been there before.

 

My Tips:

1) Don't buy alcoholic beverages.

2) Bring your own soda on board and your own wine if you drink wine.

or

3) Drink only the free beverages on board (lemonade, water, coffee(?)).

or

4) If you won't bring your own soda on board and have to drink soda instead of water or lemonade, purchase the bottomless bubbles soda card thing. It's well worth it if you drink a lot of soda.

5) Don't gamble, or if you have to gamble go in with a budget of $X per day ($10?) and do the lower slot machines.

6) Eat only in the freed food areas.

7) Don't eat on the islands - wait until you get back to the ship.

8) Don't do Carnival excursions. Either get off of the boat and use a local tour guide (this is what we do and it is usually at MOST $20/person for a couple hours) or just take a taxi to a local beach and relax by the water.

 

I'd also like to add that a great man once said (and still says) that you shouldn't have to worry about a budget on vacation. If you're going to spend the entire time worrying about spending too much money or being sad because you can't do X, X or X, then I would say just stay home and save up for the next cruise instead. :)

[TEXAZJEWL]

If you do want souvenirs such as t-shirts, rum cakes or trinkets from the gift shop, wait until the last cruise day. Most of their items will go on sale half price that last day!

[Luv2SeaU]

Wondering everyones take on cruising on a tight budget. Had alot of things happen over the last couple months that required our extra cruise money. Please help me convince my husband that we can go on a tight budget and still have a good time.

 

Easy Peasy.... Take all of your budgeted spending money and at your first opportunity head straight to the casino. You should bet aggressively and remember no risk, no reward. You should double or even triple your money in no time.

[starsteveo]

I have 3 Carnival T-shirts that I love to wear and all 3 came from Goodwill.:D Funny because I did buy one on my first cruise and don't even wear that one. Oh yeah, if you do buy T-shirts on the ship, buy them on the last day because they have sales then. Also don't park at the terminal, if you will stay at a hotel, pick one that will let you park there. Eat cheap on the road, plenty of good food on the boat already paid for. Don't buy excursions, research the port of call on here to find fun things to do. If you do buy pictures, limit yourself to one or two, and take the rest (or all) yourself.